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ROSEMEAD - Police arrested nine people over the past three weeks in connection with a burglary ring in the San Gabriel Valley.
Police said that in past several months, Rosemead, Temple City and Monterey Park were hit "pretty hard by residential burglaries."
"We believe that the primary four suspects are involved in a large burglary ring in the San Gabriel Valley," said sheriff's Lt. Mike O'Shea.
Those four people arrested were Rosemead residents Gabriel Espinoza, 21, Erika Strauss, 19, and Matthew Batres, 25, and Ada Yung, 21, of West Covina. They were charged with attempted murder, burglary, shooting at an occupied vehicle and assault with a firearm, said sheriff's Sgt. Tri Hoang.
All of the arrests were prompted by a series of crimes on April 13 including a burglary, carjacking, kidnapping, and attempted murder, O'Shea said.
"This was a dangerous group," said Detective Anthony Valenzuela. "We're hoping that we will start to see a decline in the number of burglaries in the area."
The investigation started just after 2 p.m. on April 13, when a family who lived on Noel Drive in Temple City parked in their driveway only to see four people coming out of their home. As the family sat in the car, the suspects ran. Then, one suspect fired a round of bullets at the car and at the home. No one was injured.
When police responded to the scene, they found a hotel key to the Knights Inn in Rosemead. Two hours later, police
set up a surveillance of the hotel in hopes that they would run into the suspects.
As police waited, another incident involving one of the suspects occurred at the Target in Rosemead.
About 8 p.m., a Target employee was on his break and standing in the parking lot by his car, a Scion. He was approached by Gabriel Espinoza, who allegedly held the man at gunpoint and told him to get in the car, police said. Gabriel Espinoza then allegedly drove the Scion to Fern Drive and Rosemead Boulevard, where he let the man out and sped off in the car.
"It seemed like a pretty far- fetched theory at the time that the carjacking and the Noel burglary were related," O'Shea said. "But it turned out that it was the same guy."
Gabriel Espinoza, who police say is affiliated with East Los Angeles gang Juarez Maravilla, is also being charged with kidnapping, carjacking and robbery. He is being held at Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles on a $2.86 million bail.
Also in custody are David Doxey, Teleforo Palacios, Eloy Espinoza, Antonio Sanchez and Jose Cruz, who were arrested during the investigation on separate charges.
Police are unsure how much money was stolen and how many victims there were.
"We recovered a decent amount of stolen property, everything from computers to custom jewelry," Valenzuela said. "But we are having problems finding all of the victims."
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